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Sea shanties and maritime music

For without his chanty the seaman could not have worked the under-manned and underfed, and often sty-fed, vessels in which he went up and down the world; he could not have set sail to favoring breeze or furled it from destroying gale. There is nothing like a song to lift any kind of work along; and a chanty was then – and still is, on the few square-rigged wanderers left on the seas – as good as ten men on a rope's end, capstan-bar, or windlass-brake.

William Brown Meloney IV, The Chanty Man Sings, 1926

This Day in History (February 29, 1908)

This Day in History (January 8, 1806)

The death of Lord Nelson was a national tragedy like no other for England. "From Greenwich to Whitehall Stairs, on the 8th of January, 1806, in one of the greatest Aquatic Processions that ever was beheld on the River Thames" drifted the royal shallop (barge). The event is referenced in the modern lament, Carrying Nelson Home. Nelson is mentioned in nearly a dozen other songs.

Try a random shanty sampling

Bring 'em Down
Hauling shanty

In Liverpool I was born,
Ch: Bring 'em down,
London is me home from home,
Ch: Bring 'em down.

In Liverpool I was bred,
Strong in the back and thick in the head.

Callao gals I do love so,
Waggle their arse with a roll and go.

Liverpool gals I do adore,
Rob yer blind and ask fer more.

When I git home from off the sea,
It's Jinny will ya marry me.

Bring 'em down it is the cry,
The bloody topmast sheave is dry.

Rock and roll her over boys,
Get this damned job over boys.
The Sea Serpent
Adieu to Maimuna
Forecastle song

The boatmen shout, 'tis time to part,
No longer can we stay;
'Twas then Mimuna taught my heart
How much a glance can say,
'Twas then Mimuna taught my heart
How much a glance can say.

With trembling steps to me she came,
Farewell, she would have cried;
But ere her lips the words could frame,
In half-formed sounds it died.

Through tear-dimm'd eyes beamed looks of love,
Her arms she round me flung;
As clings the breeze on sighing grove
Upon my breast she hung.

My willing arms embraced the maid,
My heart with rapture beat,
While she but wept the more and said,
"Would we had never met!"
Jack Tar

Come all my fair ones,
Come, all my dear ones,
Come and listen unto me.
"Could you fancy a jolly sailor lad
That has just come from sea?
Could you fancy a jolly sailor lad
That has just come from sea?"

"No, I dislike them,
No, I despise them,
For they smell so much of tar!
So begone, you sassy sailor lad,
So begone, you Jack tar.
So begone, you sassy sailor lad,
So begone, you Jack tar."

"I have ships on the ocean, love,
I have money in my pocket, love,
I have gold in great store.
I would give to a poor country girl
If she would wed Jack Tar.
I would give to a poor country girl
If she would wed Jack Tar."

Soon as she heard him say,
Down from her bending knees fell se,
Saying, "Forgive me, my jolly sailor lad,
For I love none but thee.
Forgive me, my jolly sailor lad,
For I love none but thee."

"Do you think I'm foolish, love?
Do you think I'm crazy, love?
Do you think I'm going mad,
For to wed with a poor country girl
That's no fortune to be had?
For to wed with a poor country girl
That's no fortune to be had?"
Mainsail Café, 2025 Contact